MnDOT Crews Busy Repairing Buckled Streets

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Tuesday’s high of 103 degrees was intense. In fact, it was too much for some of our roads.

MnDOT crews were busy overnight trying to fix some of the roads that buckled with the heat.

They have been out all Wednesday morning, patching at least 30 spots in the metro roadways.

The damage caused some major traffic headaches during the rush hours the past two days.

Curt Turgeon, a state pavement engineer, said Minnesota has the worst weather when it comes to building stuff outside. Our cold winters and warm summers are such extreme temperature changes and that causes some big problems on the streets.

Turgeon said the heat causes the concrete to expand which creates all the problems

“You have all of these joints slamming together. And it takes one joint to be not quite as good as it once was, to not be able to take that pressure … and have the joint pop up,” he said. “It is a blowup.”

Turgeon said the bottom of hills tend to be the most troublesome spot.

MnDOT said it will take a couple of weeks before all the road damage is completely repaired.